The world changed fifty years ago, on October 4, 1957, when the U.S. public heard the shocking news that the Soviet Union had successfully launched the first satellite, Sputnik I. Why didn't the U.S. beat the Soviets in this first crucial round of the space race? NOVA details the previously untold story of the technological and political missteps that made the U.S. lose out to the Soviets' bleeping electronic basketball.